Air conditioning apparatus



Dec. 8, 1964 F. s. METCALFE 3,159,983 AIR CONDITIONING APPARATUS FiledJan. 31, 1964 4 Sheets-Sheet 1 WITNESSES: INVENTOR ,JVL, {Z Fredgick S.Metcolfe J WT EWNAA ATTORNEY Dec. 8, 1964 F. s. METCALFE AIRCONDITIONING APPARATUS 4 Sheets-Sheet 2 Filed Jan. 31, 1964 Dec. 8, 1964F. s. METCALFE 3 AIR CONDITIONING APPARATUS Filed Jan. 51, 1964 4Sheets-Sheet 3 Fig. 5.

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United States Patent 3,159,933 AIR CONDITIONING APPARATUS Frederick S.Metcalfe, Columbus, Ohio, assiguor to Westinghouse Electric Corporation,Pittsburgh, Pa, a corporation of Pennsylvania Filed Iian. 31, 1964, Ser.No. 341,705 Claims. (Cl. 62-262) This invention relates to airconditioning apparatus, and more particularly to an air conditioner ofthe selfcontained unit type.

In providing an air conditioning unit for a room such as an ofiice, gameroom or other enclosure having a limited space, it is desirable thatonly a limited portion of the air conditioner housing extend into theenclosure. For this reason, most self-contained air conditioning unitsare provided with the air inlet from the enclosure, the air outlet tothe enclosure, and the manual control elements all disposed on the frontsurface of the air conditioner housing. With the air inlet and airoutlet both located in a relatively vertical plane, the optimum air flowto the enclosure cannot be attained.

It should be obvious that the optimum flow of cooled conditioned air,would be to exhaust the cool conditioned air upwardly into the enclosurein a vertical direction towards the ceiling, and to take air from theenclosure into the air conditioner housing in a vertical direction fromadjacent the door. Air flow as described would create the greatestdivergence of air flow attainable with such a unit and in addition wouldeffect minimum recirculation of conditioned air back into the airconditioner. Any recirculation reduces the cooling ability of the airconditioner. It should be evident, however, that to provide an air inletthrough a bottom wall of the unit housing and an air outlet through atop wall of the housing would require extending the air conditionerhousing a substantial distance into the room or enclosure.

Various attempts have been made to distribute the conditioned air by theuse of adjustable louvers at the front wall of the housing. However,while these adjustable louvers are capable of producing a wideseparation of air flow between the air inlet of the housing and the airoutlet of the housing, it is impossible to create a vertical air flowwhen mounting the louvers in a substantially vertical surface.

Although it is desirable in most cases to have a relatively smallportion of the air conditioner housing in the enclosure, it ispermissible to extend the unit into the room or housing where space isnot at a premium. It has further been found that extension of the airconditioner housing into the closure is not objectionable, and is oftendesirable, if the extended portion of the housing is made to correspondto the furnishings or decor of the room or enclosure.

The present invention therefore has as an object to provide an auxiliarycabinet for an air conditioning unit which cabinet optimizes the airflow to and from the unit, and in addition presents an attractiveappearance.

A further object of the invention is to provide an auxiliary cabinetwhich produces optimum air flow to and from an air conditioning unitwhich cabinet provides access to the manual controls and provides forease of servicing the unit.

Another object of the invention is to provide an air conditioning unithaving an optimum air flow to and from the room or enclosure.

Still another object of the invention is to provide air conditioningapparatus having optimum air flow to and from the enclosure, whilepresenting a pleasing appearance to the enclosure or room to beconditioned.

Yet another object of the invention is to baflie and reduce the level ofnoise of an operating air conditioner.

3,153,983 Patented Dec. 8;, 1964 "ice The foregoing objects, and otherobjects, are effected by the invention as will be apparent from thefollowing description taken in connection with the accompanying drawingsforming a part of this application, in which:

FIGURE 1 is a perspective elevational view showing a unit airconditioner as may be employed in the present invention;

FIG. 2 is a perspective elevational view showing the air conditioningunit of FIG. 1 employed in the invention;

FIG. 3 is an exploded perspective View showing the structure of FIG. 2and having portions broken away to show details of the invention;

FIG. 4 is a fragmentary side elevational view of the structure of FIG.1, taken on a larger scale for clarity;

FIG. 5 is a fragmentary side elevational view similar to FIG. 4, butshowing a portion of the structure of FIG. 2 in detail; and

FIG. 6 is a horizontal sectional view, taken along the line VIVI of FIG.5, looking in the direction indicated by the arrows.

Referring now to the figures, especially FIG. 1, there is shown a roomair conditioner of the self-contained unit type having a housing 10suitable for installation in a window, or wall structure, of anenclosure or room to be air conditioned. The housing 10 has containedtherein the various elements of a refrigerating system as is generallyemployed in an air conditioning device of this type, such as evaporator,condenser, blower, etc. Such elements are well known to those familiarwith the art, and have not been herein described in detail as they formno part of the present invention.

When installed in a room or enclosure, the housing 10 is disposed with afront wall 11 and a minimum portion of the housing 10 extending into theenclosure. The front wall 11 has an outlet 12 for conditioned air in theupper portion thereof, an inlet 13 for air to be conditioned in thelower portion thereof, and a plurality of manually operable controls 14all readily accessible to the enclosure. In operation, air flows fromthe enclosure through the opening 13 into the housing where it is cooledand returned from the housing 10 through the opening 12 to theenclosure. The temperature and veloci-' ty of the air discharging fromthe unit are controlled by manual controls 14. The above-describedstructure and operation are conventional.

Referring now to FIG. 2, the present invention provides an auxiliarycabinet structure 16 mounted adjacent the front wall 11 of the enclosureIt The cabinet 16 may be manufactured of wood or any other suitablematerial and is generally of a decor suitable to theroom in which it isto be installed.

The cabinet 16 has a top wall 17, a bottom wall 18, and a pair ofopposed side walls 19 and 21. The cabinet 16 is also provided with afront wall generally designated by the numeral 22 and is shown having anopening provided with a pair of movable closure members 23 and 24 shownin the closed position in FIG. 2. The closure member 23, when in theopen position, provides access to the manual controls 14 while theclosure 24, when opened, provides access to the air inlet 13. An opening26 is provided in the top wall 17 for discharge of air exhausting fromthe outlet 12.

For a funther detailed description of the structure and its operation,reference should now be had to FIGS. 3, 4 and 5.

With reference to FIGS. 3 and 5, the cabinet 16 is shown to have aforwardly upwardly sloping bafile member 27 disposed between the sidewalls 19 and 21 and having its edges in sealing engagement therewith.Further, the bottom wall 18 of the cabinet 16 has an openring 28 thereinfor air flow into the cabinet. The baffle member 27, when positioned asshown in FIG. 5 with a rearwardly disposed vertical flange 29 adjacentand in sealing engagement with the front wall 11, provides separation ofair flow between the openings 26 and 28 thus eliminating any.recirculation which would adversely affect the cooling ability of theair conditioner.

As is apparent from FIGS. 3 and 4, the cabinet 16 is easily adaptable tothe housing with but minor modification to the housing. The front wall11 of the housing 10 includes: an upper louver construction including aframe 31 and an adjustable louver assembly 32, and a lower grill anember33. The frame 31 is attached to the front wall 11 by three screws 30which are received in holes 34 in the front wall. When the frame 31 isremoved from the housing 10, the adjustable louver assembly 32 isreadily removable from the frame to which it is removably attached byspring clips (not shown) or other suitable means.

To'remove the frame 31., it is first necessary to remove the lower grillmember 33. This is easily accomplished by pulling the top portion of thegrill member 33 away from a plurality of magnets 35 provided in thehousing 10, and tilting the member forward to disengage a pair of feet36 from an upturned flange 37.

With grill member 33 and frame 31 removed, the cabinet 16 may be mountedon the housing 10 with the vertical flange 29 abutting the housing frontwall 11. The flange 29 has holes which are aligned with the holes 34,and the cabinet 16 is screwed to the housing 10 in a similar manner aswas the frame 31 prior to its removal. With the cabinet 16 in place, thegrill 33 is replaced by hooking the feet 36 over the flange 37 andpositioning the upper edge against the magnets 35.

In .the embodiment shown, the opening 26 in the top of the cabinet isprovided with a removable flange member 38 which is easily attached bymeans of a pair of screws 29. When the flange 38 is removed, the opening26 is so constructed as to receive the louver assembly 32, and theflange member 38 is replaced to retain the louver assembly in theopening 25. Preferably the lower surface of strip 38 carriescompressible material 38a to provide a seal between the top wall 17 ofthe cabinet and the top of the housing 10. a The transversely extendinglouvers of the louver assembly 32 preferably are adjustable as a groupabout their longitudinal axes. Consequently with the louver assembly 32in the cabinet top opening 26 (FIG. 5), the louvers can be adjusted todischarge the cooled air vertically towards the ceiling of the room orenclosure, or forwardly from the vertical up to as much as 45 degreestherefrom.

In addition to the sealing surfaces at 29 and 38a, the opposed ,sidewalls 19 and 21 of the cabinet each has a ventically extending sealingmember 41 on the inner surface thereof for sealing against the outersides of the housing 10 (FIG. 6).

As is best shown by the arrows in FIG. 5, with the auxiliary cabinetmounted adjacent the front wall 11, air flowing from the housing 10through the air outlet 12 is' deflected upwardly by the inclined baflle27 to discharge generally vertically through the louver assembly 32therein. The upper surface of the baffle 27 has a layer 42 of foamrubber, or other sound absorbing material, thereon. Similar soundabsorbing material 43 covers the inner surfacesof the cabinet side walls19 and 21, above the baffie 27. Thus much of the blower noise and otherair flow noises, generated within the casing 10, and normally carried tothe room, are absorbed between the openings 12 and 26. In addition,fabrication ofthe cabi-' net from wood tends to lessen thenoise of airflow through the cabinet due to the sound absorbing quality of wood.Further, even if the cabinet were not constructed of sound absorbingmaterial, noise reaching the ears of occupants of the room is lesseneddue to the discharge of conditioned air upwardly towards the ceilingrather than horizontally towards the occupants.

The opening in the front .wall 22,. in addition to providimg access tothe manual controls 14, provides access to the lower grill member 33which may be easily removed to service air filters or other elementslocated thcrebehind.

From the foregoing, it should be evident that the invention provides anovel air flow arrangement approaching the optimum in air circulationthrough an enclosure. In addition, the structure provided may be madepleasing in appearance to overcome the objection of extending an airconditioning unit into the enclosure.

Vvhile the invention has been shown in but one form, it will be obviousto those skilled in the art that it is not so limited, but issusceptible of various changes and modifications, without departing fromthe spirit thereof.

I claim as my i vention:

1. An auxiliary cabinetfor modifying a room air conditioner or the likehaving a lower front inlet for air to be conditioned and an upper frontoutlet for conditioned air; said cabinet comprising wall structurecooperable with the front of the air conditioner to define an air inletchamber having a bottom air inlet and communicating with the airconditioner lower front inlet, and an air outlet chamber having a topair outlet and communicating with the air conditioner upper frontoutlet, whereby air to .be conditioned enters the modified airconditioner in an upward direction and conditioned air discharges fromthe modified m'r conditioner in an upward direction.

2. Structures as specified in claim 1, wherein the wall structureincludes a baflie extending from the front of the air conditionerbetween the inlet and outlet thereof forwardly and upwardly to preventmixing of air entering and air leaving the air. conditioner.

3. An auxiliary cabinet for modifying a room air conditioner or the likehaving a lower front inlet for air to be conditioned and an upper frontoutlet for conditioned air; and said cabinet comprising wall structureadapted to cooperate, with the front of the air conditioner to define alower air inlet chamber communicating with the air conditioner air inletand an upper air outlet chamber communicating with the air conditionerair outlet, said lower air inlet chamber having an opening through awall thereof for entry thereto of air to be conditioned, said upper airoutlet chamber having an opening through the top thereof for dischargetherefrom of conditioned air, at least one wall of the last-mentionedchamber having its inner surface covered with sound-absorbing material.

4. Structure as specified in claim 3, wherein said one wall of the upperair outlet chamber is so disposed that conditioned air dischargingthrough the air conditioner upper front outlet impinges on, andisdeflected upwardly by, the sound absorbing material thereon.

5. An auxiliary cabinet for modifying a room air conditioner or the likehaving a lower front inlet for air to be conditioned and an upper frontoutlet for conditioned air; said cabinet comprising a top wall, a frontwall and a pair of side walls, with the space defined by said walls opento the rear, a partition bridging the space between saidside walls andextending rearwardly from said front wall and separating the spacedefined by the walls into a lower air inlet chamber for air to beconditioned and an upper air outlet chamber for conditioned air, andmeans for so mounting the cabinet relative to the air conditioner thatthe latter receives air to be conditioned from the lower air inletchamber-and discharges conditioned air to the upper air outletchamber,the top wall of said cabinet having an opening therethrough for upwarddischarge of conditioned air from the upper air outlet chamber.

6. Structure as specified in claim 5, wherein, when the cabinet ismounted relative tothe air conditioner, the rearwardly extendingpartition abuts the front of the air conditioner above its lower frontinlet and below its upper front outlet. a

7. An auxiliary cabinet for modifying a room air conditioner or the likehaving a lower front inlet for air to be conditioned, an upper frontoutlet for conditioned air, a

and front mounted controls; said cabinet comprising a top wall, a frontwall and a pair of side walls with the space defined by said walls opento the rear, a partition extending rearwardly from said front wall andseparating the space defined by the walls into a lower inlet chamber forair to be conditioned and an upper air outlet chamber for conditionedair, means for mounting the cabinet with the major portion thereofdisposed forwardly of the front of the air conditioner so that the frontof the latter closes the rear opening interior of the cabinet, saidlower air inlet chamber having an opening thereto for admission of airto be conditioned, the top wall of said cabinet having an openingtherethrough for discharge of conditioned air from the upper air outletchamber, said front wall having an opening therethrough aligned with thefront mounted controls for access thereto, and closure means for saidaccess opening in the front wall.

8. Structure as specified in claim 7, wherein the lower front inlet ofthe air conditioner is partially closed by a removable grid, and whereinthe grid and the front mounted controls are disposed side by side, andwherein the cabinet front wall has a first opening therethroughproviding access to the controls and a second opening therethroughproviding access to the removable grid, and

closure means for each of said access openings.

9. An auxiliary cabinet for modifying a room air conditi'oner or thelike having a lower front inlet for air to be conditioned and an upperfront outlet for conditioned air; said cabinet comprising wall structureadapted to cooperate with the front of the air conditioner to define anair inlet chamber having a bottom air inlet and communicating with theair conditioner lower front inlet, and an air outlet chamber having atop air outlet and communicating with the air conditioner upper frontoutlet, whereby air to be conditioned enters the modified airconditioner in an upward direction and conditioned air discharges fromthe modified air conditioner in an upward direction, said wall structureincluding a battle extending rearwardly from the front wall of thecabinet to the front of the air conditioner, said bathe preventingmixing of air entering and air leaving the air conditioner, and meanscarried by the rearward end of the partition for securing the auxiliarycabinet in modifying relation to the room air conditioner, said cabinet,when so secured with re spect to the air conditioner, having its sideand top walls overlapping the side and top of the air conditioner.

10. The structure as specified in claim 9, including sealing meansbetween the battle rear edge and the air conditioner and between thecabinet side and top walls and the air conditioner.

References Cited in the file of this patent

1. AN AUXILIARY CABINET FOR MODIFYING A ROOM AIR CONDITIONER OR THE LIKEHAVING A LOWER FRONT INLET FOR AIR TO BE CONDITIONED AND AN UPPER FRONTOUTLET FOR CONDITIONED AIR; SAID CABINET COMPRISING WALL STRUCTURECOOPERABLE WITH THE FRONT OF THE AIR CONDITIONER TO DEFINE AN AIR INLETCHAMBER HAVING A BOTTOM AIR INLET AND COMMUNICATING WITH THE AIRCONDITIONER LOWER FRONT INLET, AND AN AIR OUTLET CHAMBER HAVING A TOPAIR OUTLET AND COMMUNICATING WITH THE AIR CONDITIONER UPPER FRONTOUTLET, WHEREBY AIR